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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Saturday morning I packed up my bike with a picnic rug, a bottle of cider, and some food, and rode to Centennial Park where I met Michelle and Mill under a shady tree. We spent the afternoon catching up while we shared a picnic lunch.

Lunch! Mill brought along a pickled cucumber salad - a recipe she discovered during her time in the US. It was yum! Basically made from onions, cucumbers, sugar and vinegar.

What picnic would be complete without dessert? Meringues with berries.

The girls enjoying their dessert.

Today I met up with a fellow blogger who is currently living in Sydney. Jen is the writer of Pretty Little Pictures, a very inspiring vintage blog. I came across Jen's blog about a month ago, and after a few exchanges we decided we should meet. We met for breakfast at a cute cafe in the inner west. Jen was lovely! We chatted about sewing and the projects we are working on, and I invited her to come along to my next craft day.

Once the meal was finished we went to pay, and both pulled out tiny red vintage purses - great minds think alike!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Here is my second installment of 'projects I am loving'. Again all of these are sourced from the Burda Style website.

Enjoy.

Alice and the Mad Hatter by dewreb. I love the whimsical nature of her dress. Dewreb is a very talented seamstress and has a number of gorgeous projects in her online studio. Click here to read more about this project.

Yellow Floral Clutch by kaitw. This is an original design and I just love the vintage floral print. Click here to read more about this project.

Lace Bralette by hellagabrielle. A very feminine piece of sewing. Click here to read more about this project.

Jane Austin's Persuasion by marthaO. A lovely example of period costuming. Click here to read more about this project.

Red-handed by carolyn-s. A beautiful pair of gloves sewn by a fellow Aussie! Some of you might already be familiar with Carolyn's blog Handmade by Carolyn. Click here to read more about this project.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these as much as I did. There are so many talented sewers out there!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A close friend of mine is pregnant with her first baby, a much wanted little boy due at the beginning of August.

I am so thrilled for her and her husband, and know they are going to be fantastic parents!

What is also exciting (for me) is that this opens up a whole new chapter for my crafting - baby items! Now I did have a go at making some baby shorts late last year, but as this baby is due in winter summer shorts just wouldn't be appropriate.

So after spending some time searching the net, here are some of the best baby gift tutorials I found...

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The pattern envelop, well, I had never seen anything like it! Gone was the traditional boring white envelope folded at the top. Instead, this Colette Pattern envelope was more like a folder, made from vintage-look cream card, with soft pink print and side stitching detail that I discovered held in place the instruction booklet.

I wouldn't normally go so silly over a pattern envelope, but the attention to detail that has gone in to creating this envelope, well, it deserves some applause :-) For those of you who have not yet purchased any Colette Patterns yet, here is a peak at mine...

I have printed out the Colette Pattern's lace tutorials for the Nutmeg pattern in preparation for sewing this. Now I just need to find the perfect fabric and lace combo...

Has anyone sewn this pattern before or something like it? Any suggestions on fabric choice?

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Autumn Palette Challenge is off to a slow and steady start. The dress patterns I purchased finally arrived and they look super cute! I am planning on going to The Remnant Warehouse this pay day to purchase the fabric for both of these dresses.

Both patterns look super easy to make! The Jiffy dress only has two pieces (now that is fast) so I am excited to see how it actually turns out. From the look of the pattern, the buttons, belt, and folds are features added to give it a bit of shape. I like the look of the other more 70's style dress pattern as I think it would look great in a heavier fabric, and when finished, teamed with tights and a little jacket.

Remember this pattern?

I finally purchased the fabric to make View 1. I had been seriously thinking about making it in a navy, but I was really worried that the scalloped edge would be lost in a darker fabric. So I took the leap and bought three yards of mauve pink gabardine fabric from www.trimfabric.com.

I can't wait for it to arrive! I had decided on a Wiltshire lining for the jacket if it had been in navy, but now I will have to decide on a pink-based one.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

My retro quilt on our queen sized bed - what was supposed to be a smallish lap quilt for the couch turned out bigger than expected!

It is too hot again today to do any sewing (why does it only get this hot on the weekends?!?). I finished my retro quilt top and thought I would share a few photos with you. I know these photos don't look much different to the photos I posted before of just the quilt top, but trust me it's finally finished :-)

It's hard to imagine ever needing a quilt as I type this in the final month of summer, but I know winter will creep up much too quickly and I will soon be thanking myself I have this beauty to lie under.

As it is so hot and we don't have air conditioning, I decided to finish this quilt by tying instead of hand quilting (that is more of a winter hobby!). Just like handing quilting and machine quilting, tying is a well used quilting technique. The technique itself dates back hundreds of years, and is a way of finishing off quilts that are made to be used and are needed quickly. While I did not need this quilt quickly, it will definitely be one will be in regular use this winter - it will be a 'snuggle under a quilt on the couch' quilt.

I decided to tie my knots so they created a decorative 'x' on the quilt top, with the knot fastened on the underside. An alternative way to tie a quilt is using a basic reef knot.

For the backing fabric I used a yellow and white daisy printed sheet I found in a thrift store last month. I had enough of the fabric left over to also use some for binding the quilt, which turned out to look quite nice.

I hand stitched the binding down to give it a neat look. I am thrilled with how easy this project was, and the fact that I was able to make a quilt completely out of vintage fabrics!

If you are wondering where I sourced the amazing fabrics I used for the quilt top, I purchased them all from Etsy shop Zwizzle at a very reasonable price.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Tonight I decided to go back to the 1920's chemise I started a few weeks ago. I was stalled because the lace was too soft and folded over onto itself when the chemise was held upright. I have looked through the trimming sections of my local fabric stores but I couldn't find anything that was a suitable alternative. So I decided to improvise.

Firstly, I re-sewed one side French seam as I had not trimmed the seam allowance short enough and consequently little bits of it were sticking out of the finished seam (not a good look!).

Secondly, I decided to fold the top of the lace back over to the wrong side of the fabric and sewed it in place with a small straight stitch. This scalloped edges of the lace sewed down created a nice effect on the inside of the garment. It also made the top edge a bit more stable so now when worn the chemise sits flat against my chest and back.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

It has been incredibly hot this week in Sydney. We have had eight consecutive days of temperatures over 35oC (thats 95F) - something that has not occurred in 150 years. And to top it off, last night was the hottest night on record for 40 years (it was still 33oC/91F at midnight). With only one tiny fan that blows the hot air around our small apartment, it goes without saying that not much sleep has been had this week.

So all I have been able to do is lie in front of the fan, drink lots of water, and plan my Autumn Palette Challenge...

I have mostly been thinking about what fabric I want to use to make this Simplicity Jacket and Skirt. Tilly made a nice version of this pattern in purple with a contrasting blue lining, but purple is not in my palette so I think I will make it in a navy blue pique fabric with a Liberty lining.

Here is what I think I will use:

A solid navy blue pique fabric available on eBay at the moment.

Tana Lawn navy blue Wiltshire for the lining - isn't this a great print?!.

I think this will look really cute with the Wiltshire lining, I just hope that the scalloped edge of the jacket isn't lost on the darkness of the fabric.